Oxygen Destroyer

Ogata, if the Oxygen Destroyer is used even once, politicians from around the world will see it. Of course, they'll want to use it as a weapon. Bombs versus bombs, missiles versus missiles, and now a new superweapon to throw upon us all! As a scientist - no, as a human being - I can't allow that to happen!

The Oxygen Destroyer (オキシジェン・デストロイヤー, Okishijen Desutoroiyā) is a fictional weapon of mass destruction invented by Dr. Daisuke Serizawa and used to kill the original Godzilla in the 1954film, Godzilla. It has appeared or been referenced in several other pieces of official Godzilla media since then.

Origins

The Oxygen Destroyer was the invention of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa. Having devoted his studies to the element oxygen, Serizawa accidentally stumbled upon a volatile and deadly chemical reaction. Though horrified by the destructive potential of his discovery, he nonetheless continued his research, optimistic that some beneficial outcome could be produced from it.

Design

The Oxygen Destroyer is a heavy device composed of a metal capsule with a glass central chamber. Within this chamber is a second capsule attached by rods at either end. Contained within the capsule is a large amount of what would be later known as Micro-Oxygen, the weapon's payload. Numerous gauges and pressure meters are present on the larger capsule. To operate the Oxygen Destroyer, the two ends of the larger capsule have to be pushed inwards. This causes the rods securing the inner capsule to pull apart, releasing the Micro-oxygen within.

History

The weapon was first revealed to Emiko Yamane by Daisuke Serizawa when they were in his lab. He demonstrated it on a tank of fish, which were instantly reduced to skeletons, much to Emiko's horror.

After Godzilla destroyed Tokyo, Serizawa reluctantly agreed to allow the Oxygen Destroyer's raw form to be used against the kaiju, but only after destroying his research documents and materials. The formula was still in his memory however, and fearing that it would lead to another arms race, the doctor knew that he would need to sacrifice himself as well. On the fateful morning in Tokyo Bay, Serizawa and Hideo Ogata descended into the water to find Godzilla, with Serizawa carrying the Oxygen Destroyer. Soon, Godzilla was located, and despite sighting the two divers, the monster was apparently unaware of their presence. Serizawa activated the device, then urged Ogata to return to the boat. As Ogata was pulled upwards by the boat's crew, Serizawa set the device down and then cut his diving suit's air tube. As the Oxygen Destroyer released its payload of Micro-Oxygen, Serizawa stood and waited to be disintegrated by the corrosive chemical.

In bouts of horrendous pain, Godzilla surfaced from the water and uttered one final roar before sinking back into Tokyo Bay. As the Micro-Oxygen continued to take effect, Godzilla's flesh was dissolved completely, followed by his skeleton. Both the monster and the brilliant scientist were no more.

In 1996, Dr. Kensaku Ijuin unveiled an invention he called micro-oxygen, which he intended to benefit humanity, like Serizawa before him. Ijuin confessed that he made reference to Serizawa's surviving work when working on micro-oxygen, but never intended to recreate the Oxygen Destroyer after his analysis of the soil where the weapon was fired, determining that it would have "turned Tokyo into a cemetery" if it were used on the ground. Emiko Yamane saw Ijuin being interviewed about the invention by her niece Yukari, and became concerned that Ijuin's invention was dangerously similar to the Oxygen Destroyer. Emiko begged Yukari and Kenichi Yamane to convince Ijuin to shelve the project, since Serizawa had given up his life to ensure that the Oxygen Destroyer could never be used again for any purpose because of how dangerous it was. Despite their aunt's pleas, Yukari and Kenichi attempted to convince Ijuin to recreate the Oxygen Destroyer, believing it was the only way to stop Godzilla's impending meltdown and save the world. However, Dr. Ijuin revealed another concern, a lifeform had escaped from a soil sample recovered from the site where the Oxygen Destroyer was detonated to kill the first Godzilla in 1954. Soon, Ijuin was called to investigate when all of the fish in a local aquarium were mysteriously killed. Ijuin determined that the fish were killed by several microscopic creatures that had been mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer and were coming ashore due to the presence of micro-oxygen. These creatures began combining with each other into larger and more fearsome forms and wreaking havoc, eventually combining into a gigantic living incarnation of the Oxygen Destroyer, which Ijuin named Destoroyah. G-Force determined that their best option was to lure Godzilla to Tokyo and have him fight Destoroyah and hopefully be killed before he melted down. G-Force had Miki Saegusa and Meru Ozawa use their telepathy to lure Godzilla Junior to Tokyo, knowing Godzilla would follow. Junior was attacked by Destoroyah and managed to defeat him after a brutal battle. While Godzilla and his adopted son tried to reunite near Haneda Airport, they were attacked by Destoroyah in his Perfect Form, who killed Godzilla Junior and battled Godzilla. When Godzilla's temperature reached critical, Destoroyah tried to fly away, but was shot down by G-Force's freezer weapons and collided with the superheated ground, vaporizing him and ending the Oxygen Destroyer's destructive legacy once and for all.

In the continuity of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, the Japanese government covered up the use of the Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. It was feared that the military would face ridicule over its inability to defeat Godzilla and thus the Japanese Self-Defense Forces were officially credited with the victory.

In Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, the Oxygen Destroyer didn't dissolve Godzilla's skeleton, and Kiryu's blueprints incorporated the original Godzilla's skeleton within it to make the design process and construction less strenuous.

Mechanisms

The device works by activating a chemical stored within its spherical center, which causes the center to split in half and open. Once released, the chemical (later dubbed Micro-Oxygen by Kensaku Ijuin) reacts violently with the water, isolating oxygen molecules and splitting them. The molecules are then liquefied. This means that any organism exposed to the chemical will first suffocate from the lack of oxygen, and then disintegrate. Depending on the amount of the oxygen destroying chemical released, the body of the victim will either be eaten down to the bone or destroyed completely. When used to its full potential, the Oxygen Destroyer will leave no remains. According to Dr. Ijuin, if the Oxygen Destroyer had been used on land, it would have turned Tokyo into a cemetery. Creatures that thrive in anaerobic environments, however, such as the Precambrian crustaceans that became Destoroyah, can actually be empowered by the Oxygen Destroyer's chemical reactions and mutate to incorporate Micro-Oxygen within their bodily processes.

Books

Hoping to provide hope for humanity in the wake of widespread despair and rioting across the globe, a researcher named Kane Hilter fabricated a story about the Oxygen Destroyer, claiming it was a chemical weapon capable of destroying the seemingly-invincible Godzilla. According to the story, the Oxygen Destroyer was the invention of Dr. Serizawa, who feared that war between humanity, the Exif, and Bilusaludo was inevitable and did not want his weapon to be used in the coming war. In 2037, Serizawa allegedly used the device to kill Godzilla off the coast of France in 2037, taking his own life in the process after destroying all of his research. The Godzilla which appeared in Antarctica and destroyed Gorath in 2042 was simply another member of the species. Hilter's story soon became an urban legend, and in 2047 a team of scientists led by Kensaku Ijuin began researching a way to recreate the Oxygen Destroyer at the abandoned North American Hedorah Research Laboratory. They specifically focused on a bizarre microorganism dubbed J-MO7, which had been discovered in the Tokyo Bay area and which the scientists believed was somehow connected to the Oxygen Destroyer. However, the J-MO7 specimens merged together into a single crustacean-like aggregate form, which broke loose in the institute and killed all of the researchers. Hilter, himself working at the institute at the time, locked himself in a shelter and composed an email to Akira Sakaki, informing him of what had happened and admitting that he had made up the story of the Oxygen Destroyer. After Hilter sent the email, the aggregate J-MO7 melted the iron door to the shelter and killed Hilter.

Comics

At the end of the first issue, a weapon strongly implied to be the Oxygen Destroyer was deployed against Godzilla in Tokyo Bay. The unnamed inventor destroyed his blueprints before committing suicide as the weapon activated. Godzilla's fate was left ambiguous; either he survived or another monster of the same species appeared several months later.

Video Games

The Laboratory takes five turns to build the Oxygen Destroyer (simply called "Destroyer" in the game's instruction manual), which can kill Godzilla instantly if it is deployed in the water within five spaces of him.[1]

Trivia

The Oxygen Destroyer is one of the oldest surviving props from the Godzilla franchise, first being used in the original 1954 film and being placed on display as recently as 2013 as part of the Godzilla Encounter. Other props from the original film that were intact as of 2004 were a diving helmet and pair of boots.

References

This is a list of references for Oxygen Destroyer. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]